The Quest for 1%: Debriefing March 2011
My fellow riskologists,
It’s time again to sit down and look at exactly what it takes to do what less than 1% of the world will ever do. In my quest for 1%, I do a lot of work behind the scenes, and this is where I highlight what’s happened the last month to inch closer and closer to achieving my biggest goals.
If you’re new here, you might want to get familiar with the 1% Club before continuing. This will make a lot more sense.
We started this new monthly debriefing format last month, and a lot of people told me they liked it. So, we’re going to keep it up. If you have big goals for yourself, this is a good place to learn more about what it takes to achieve them.
As always, thanks for being here. I appreciate the support of each and every one of you. You’re like my second family. Let’s dive right in.
Reaching Milestones in March
Just one month in and we’re already running into a “problem”— no 1% Club items were completed this month! Of course, that’s not really a problem, and I expected it all along.
Over the course of these updates, there are going to be lots of times when I don’t get to cross something off of the list. I have big goals and most of them take longer than a month to complete. This is normal and okay. The important thing to remember is that breaking a big goal into smaller pieces is essential to finishing an otherwise daunting task.
As they say, the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
Even though there were no glorious victories in March, I did make significant progress towards several of my biggest goals.
The Seven Summits Club
Logistically, things are in place for me to make my way up the first two of the seven summit; I just need to show up and do it. In order to make sure I’m ready for the challenge and, to some extent, the altitude, I’ve confirmed a few practice climbs in the coming months before I set out in June.
This month, I’ll be climbing Mt. Hood with a partner I met on the Cascade Climbers message board last year. Mt. Hood is actually smaller than Mt. Adams, which I summited last year, but it should be more technically challenging, and I’ll get a chance to do some light roped travel, which will be good practice for Mt. Elbrus in Russia. That means, on certain parts of the route, we’ll tether ourselves together with a length of rope as a safety measure. I need more practice with ropes and knot tying, so I’m looking forward to that.
In May, I’ll execute a fairly simple climb of The South Sister in Central Oregon, just to keep my climbing muscles ready for the work they’ll do in June and July.
Note: If you’re headed toward a big goal, I think it’s important to remember that the most necessary steps are not always the biggest ones. Mt. Hood is a step down for me in terms of altitude, but it will be a chance to hone my technical skills.
Don’t just reach for the next big step; reach for the right one.
To date, I’ve completed 3 practice climbs and have reached 0 of the 7 summits.
The Seven Continents Club
Climbing two big peaks in a month’s time, in actuality, probably won’t be that taxing. I expect to recover from those fairly quickly (though I could be wrong). The big challenge on my upcoming trip will be completing the two marathons I have planned.
Training began, in earnest, this month, and at the time of this writing, my longest training run has been 15 miles. I’ll work my way up to 25 before I depart for Africa. I’m being very careful to train slowly and properly for these races, unlike the way I trained for my first one last year in Eugene, Oregon.
I’m confident that I could complete one—and probably even both of them—in my current state, but I enjoy the training and it’s good insurance against a catastrophe overseas, where a breakdown would be devastating and quite costly because it could produce a domino effect that would ruin the whole trip.
I believe in taking strong, calculated risks just as much as I believe in throwing caution to the wind. They’re different strategies for different applications. In this case, I’ll do what I can to ensure success to the best of my ability.
One critical factor I still need to sort out is the actual course for my marathon in Warsaw, Poland. There are no scheduled races when I’ll be in town, so I plan to set my own course—a marathon of one! Before that, though, I need to clarify where I’ll be staying; the course needs to be near my accomodations, so that’s where I’ll focus my energy next.
Note: Work backward from your goals until you have something you can do right now without waiting on anything else. That’s usually the best place to focus your energy.
That said, if you know where in Warsaw it’s possible to run, uninterrupted, for 26.2 miles, I’m open to suggestions.
To date, I’ve completed 1 of 7 marathons.
Free Mountaineering Gear
Last month, I mentioned that one way to get the gear I need to climb these big mountains is to solicit gear from manufacturers in exchange for a review of their equipment here on Riskology.co.
I finally started on that last week and currently have 6 requests out to different companies for the most expensive equipment I’ll need. I still have about 10 or 15 to send, but they take a little time to do well, so I’m working my way backwards from the priciest pieces to the less expensive.
I’m testing a few different tactics as I do this, and I’m pretty excited to see how it turns out. If it ends up being a positive experience, I’ll write a comprehensive article about how to do it. Either way, I’ll be updating here about the experience.
To date, I haven’t received any gear as a result of this experiment, but I have received one substantial discount code.
The Road Ahead
Steady focus is an important part of my philosophy, but so is looking ahead and working on new and exciting things. As many of you know by now, I suffer from an acute case of “shiny object syndrome.” I’m easily distracted by new ideas, so I’m careful about balancing my efforts between sustaining what’s already underway and also exploring new opportunities.
That said, I usually lean towards having too much going on than not enough. For me, chaos is more comfortable than stagnation. Here’s what I’m starting to focus on more as time permits:
Sell a Business for $1,000,000
I’m proud of what I’ve been able to create here at Riskology.co in less than a year, and I’m looking forward to ramping things up again in the next month or two as I start on my next revenue project—a course on creating a risk-free business (more details to come soon).
However, Riskology.co will never be a sellable business because it’s too closely attached to me. The site wouldn’t really work without me here to run it. I don’t consider this a problem because I knew it would be this way going in and I have no intention of ever selling this site, but it’s a problem many personal businesses unknowingly have until they realize they want out.
To create an business that can be sold for $1 million—the amount I’ve determined will create financial independence for me and my future family—will mean finding a repeatable and scalable business that can exist without me in the day to day operations.
It’s no simple task, but I’m beginning to put more and more brain power towards it, and learning from people who’ve done it has already proven helpful. I have a lot of ideas, none of which are directly related to Riskology.co or it’s mission, so the next task is to narrow down the best ideas and find a way to inject the Riskology.co spirit into it.
Finding synergy between projects is probably my only hope of maintaining sanity as I start to add more to my plate. This is a good idea for any maximalist.
Pilot a Ship
Honestly, I have very little to say about this. I don’t know yet how I’ll go about it, but this is on my radar right now because it feels like one of the easiest things to accomplish—no reason not to pick off some low-hanging fruit, right?
This is the classic snowball method. Pick something easy and pursue it. Before long, you find ways to parlay that into much bigger things.
Potential Changes to the 1% Club
I hadn’t planned on it when I wrote the list, but I always knew it was possible I may outgrow certain challenges or become less interested in others before I got to them. Things change; that’s life.
I feel that starting to happen now, and it’s possible that, in the coming months, I may change course by subtracting a few things from the list and adding a few others. I could simply stay the course for the sake of consistency, but consistency is foolish if the course isn’t right.
Consistency is important, but so is being adaptable to change. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll make any changes to the list, but I do feel them coming, and I refuse to maintain a foolish consistency simply to maintain a commitment.
Stay tuned on this as I’ll need a little bit of meditation to decide what the best course of action is. This may be a good topic to dive into in a future article because I get a lot of emails from people who aren’t sure if they should change course or not and making a decision can be difficult.
Around the Riskology Lab
Just to wrap things up, here’s a little update on the big site changes I announced last month:
Riskology.co Domain Switch
This is still happening and will likely take place in the next few weeks. If everything goes according to plan, you won’t even notice the switch. Actually working on this mini-project is not exciting at all, but I am excited about the difference it will make in strengthening the overall message of the site.
New Community Forum
This is also currently in the works and will launch shortly after the domain switch. I’m excited about this development and look forward to telling you more about it as we get closer to launch as it will be a big change.
I’m not saying much now, but here’s a hint: commenting will be going away entirely in favor of a much better forum discussion model. This is going to be really cool and much better than how commenting currently works.
Riskologist of the Month
This month’s featured riskologist is Elise Villareal. Elise is a long-time Riskology.co reader who’s up to some very cool things, like biking across the U.S.A. this summer to raise money for affordable housing through the great Bike & Build program. Learn more about Elise on her Bike and Build profile and, if you’re up for it, help her raise some awareness for a great cause.
I’m constantly blown away by all the cool things Riskology.co readers are up to. If you want to nominate yourself or someone you know to be featured in a future update, send me a message.
Yours in risk-taking,
~~~~~
Images by: jercraigs, rocket ship, andre.vanrooyen